Hey all, it’s finally ready. A whole year in the making, and so happy with the way it turned out. This project has given me an appreciation on time, change, and the people you spend it with. Every day is an opportunity to do something new, exciting, and wonderful. Sometimes it is where you go, or who your are with. But make every second count!

My studio projects this semester is a community design project located at Forest Hills. This neighborhood is a burrow of the larger Jamaica Plane area. Our site is currently a bus depot in between the Arnold Arboretum and Franklin Park. I have gone to visit the site twice, and the second time I visited the Forest Hills cemetery, located in Franklin Park. A little dark and grim, but it was such a beautiful cemetery. It also started lightly raining while I was there, which added to the mystique.

Wentworth has a reputation for being a stickler when it comes to snow days. Having roots in being a commuter school, you think they would be more lenient and reasonable. But school is rarely canceled for reasons of wintery chaos. But last week we had a snow day! It was wonderful break and everyone was excited. Someone even made this gigantic snowman in the quad. It’s amazing how productive Wentworth students can be when they are outside the classroom.

I recently participated in a WAr launch party, which took place last month. WAr (Wentworth Architecture Review) is a student run academic journal displaying the work of the architecture department. It features work by students and professors work in one beautifully designed booklet. My role in ordeal was as part of a design team tasked with the job of coming up with an instillation piece for the BSA (Boston Society of Architects) space, where the launch party was. Something to display work from the journal in a fun and interesting way while filling the room. The theme was ‘Translation’, we had a budget, and two weeks to build something. This is what we came up with:

There are two fantastic museums very close to our campus; The Museum of Fine Arts (MFA), and the Isabella Stewart Gardner museum. Both of which have an amazing collection, different atmosphere, and new additions by world famous architects. I believe I’ve posted about them before, or maybe just the MFA. But I love them both and try to visit both of them a few times a semester. I especially enjoy going over to the MFA, because it is so massive and features a continually rotating collection. The lush courtyard in the Gardner is an oasis on a cold grey winter day. Here are some photos of some new statues in-front of the Fenway entrance of the MFA and some rare video of the Gardner courtyard.

I had an unusually long winter break this semester because of study abroad. We landed in Boston on November 19th and I returned to Boston on January 2nd. Crazyness. I was able to return to my co-op that I was at over the summer and worked for the three days a week. I send the rest of my time traveling around New England seeing friends and family. It was great to be home for the holidays and now I’m very excited to be back at school!

It is amazing how the medium of graffiti, when employed under different pretenses, can have a spectrum of influences. Graffiti can disvalue a neighborhood or building by being a symbol of juvenile delinquents. In other hands graffiti can show that citizens do hold value in their community. Graffiti art sometimes becomes the most iconic part of that neighborhood. It can be used as a tool to show how vibrant and proactive the community is.

I’ve been luck enough to see some incredible works of urban graffiti in Providence and Boston, but no city can compare to Berlin’s use of graffiti. In Berlin, the use of graffiti is unprecedented and unmatched in representing the essence of the city. It’s the amount that’s inspiring. Almost every solid surface is marked in one way or another. It’s incredible to see how many people felt the need and necessity to mark their built environment. Have their voices heard and displayed. The city will be quiet no more. And in the colorful chaos it almost feels like pure democracy. Some are colorful; others comical, and a few are dark and twisted. But they all have meaning in themselves and to the locals.

Berlin’s laxed graffiti laws do have their negative aspects. Too much can cause a visual overload. But they have allowed graffiti to become what it really is: the medium of the urban masses. And the city is their canvas.

Chilehaus building, Hamburg. A lot of nautical themes in this architecture

Hamburg is a major port city, these canals lead to old warehouse that are now studio apartments

Crazy modern building that overhangs over the harbor

Hamburg is a very industrial city

Crazy modern building that overhangs over the harbor

Modern Hamburg

Luxury Apartments

Beautiful example of a curtain wall

Sunset in Humbug

City Hall

Hamburg is an industrial city in Northern Germany that was severely destroyed by allied bombing in WWII. As a major port city on the Baltic coastline, Hamburg has always been a very wealthy city. Today, Hamburg is using its wealth to rebuild its historic districts and construct a new modern city center that will be an example of Architecture, Urban Design, and Green Energy for the whole world. A very cold and windy city but also an extremely beautiful, unique, cultural, and pleasant city.